Ketchikan, Alaska - A Ketchikan pilot was killed in a float plane
crash north of Ketchikan Friday morning. Josh Murdock, 38, was
the sole occupant in a 1959 DeHavilland Beaver owned by Pacific
Airways of Ketchikan that crashed at about 7:30 a.m.

Josh Murdock, 38, was
the sole occupant in a 1959 DeHavilland Beaver owned by Pacific
Airways of Ketchikan that crashed at about 7:30 a.m. this morning.
Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Public Safety

Alaska State Troopers, North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department,
U.S. Coast Guard and officers from the Ketchikan Police Department
responded and located the plane.

Witnesses reported the plane
clipped some trees, causing the plane to lose its right wing
before crashing. The plane was found on a grassy knoll off of
the Tongass Highway in the Ward Cove area. The plane was en route
from Ketchikan to Thorne Bay when it crashed on the property
of the old Ketchikan Pulp Mill's grassy knoll about seven miles
north of Ketchikan.

Photo courtesy Alaska
Department of Public Safety

The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation
Safety Board and State Medical Examiner's Office have been notified
of the death. The NTSB will take over the investigation to determine
the cause of the crash.